Israeli occupation forces shot and martyred a seven-month-old Palestinian baby boy in the occupied West Bank on Friday evening, according to a statement issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The infant, identified as Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was travelling in a vehicle with his parents and grandmother in the Tel Rumeida area south of Hebron city when an Israeli soldier opened fire at the car, martyring the child and wounding both of his parents.
The Lebanese army said the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that a single bullet struck the family’s vehicle, martyring the infant and injuring his mother and father. The baby’s father, Fahd Abu Haikal, a lecturer at Bethlehem University, was shot in the hand, while his mother sustained critical injuries with shrapnel lodged close to her heart.
The baby’s grandmother, Feryal Abu Heikal, who was also present in the vehicle at the time of the shooting, said the family had stopped their car after spotting Israeli military vehicles and soldiers in the distance near a checkpoint. She described the moment the soldiers opened fire, saying she initially believed it was warning shots before the bullet struck her grandson. “The scene was horrific to see a seven-month-old baby with a smashed face,” she said. “What kind of army in the world does this?”
The shooting took place against the backdrop of an ongoing escalation of Israeli occupation military operations across the occupied West Bank, where Palestinian civilians have faced increasing violence from both occupation forces and illegal settlers. In March 2026, Israeli occupation forces shot and martyred a Palestinian couple and their two children, aged five and seven, as they drove through the village of Tammun. Each member of the family was shot in the head, with two other children wounded by shrapnel in the same attack.
The Israeli occupation military claimed in a statement that soldiers perceived the vehicle as accelerating toward them and that a soldier fired a single shot. An initial inquiry by the occupation military acknowledged that those injured were uninvolved civilians and said the incident was under review. The British Consulate in Jerusalem said it was shocked and saddened by the killing, calling for an immediate and transparent investigation and full accountability.
According to Israeli rights group Yesh Din, Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians were indicted in fewer than one percent of cases based on 2,427 complaints filed between 2016 and 2024, reflecting a deeply entrenched culture of impunity within the Israeli occupation military that has allowed such incidents to continue without consequence.
The martyrdom of Sam Abu Haikal, who had turned seven months old on the day he was shot, has drawn renewed international attention to the daily violence faced by Palestinian civilians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank, and has intensified calls for accountability and an immediate end to the systematic targeting of Palestinian lives.
